


Little Wonders

by Madiletio



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fear, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Heartbreak, Kid Fic, M/M, More tags will be added later, Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy, it's gonna get sad y'all, plance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-07-03 08:30:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15815223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madiletio/pseuds/Madiletio
Summary: Broken and bruised, everything was unraveling right in front them. And all they could do was watch in horror.AKA the angsty kidfic no one asked for.





	1. Always

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Hello!  
> Awhile back I came up with this idea, and if it wasn't for the support of my friends, I doubt this would of even been published. This is for you angst loving heathens.  
> Also a huge thank you to my dearest friend alwaysinsonder for beta reading this.  
> ♡

Sunlight started to shine through the curtains and onto Lance’s face, slowly waking him up. Groaning, he rolled over and snuggled into Katie, pulling her close to him. He had never been a morning person, but waking up next to her was completely worth it.

 It had all been worth it.

When the war had ended for good, everyone was dealing with their own trauma in different ways. Group therapy was mandatory and although it did help from time to time, some of them still had a long way to go. Hunk threw himself into countless projects, hardly breaking away from his work unless he absolutely had to. Shiro would still train some nights, when the nightmares from everything he had endured were too much to block out.

 And Lance? He was falling into the deep end rapidly. He became so quiet it would be hard to get him to say anything. He couldn’t focus on anything or anyone. Anxiety would claw at him constantly and he was a mess.

Then one night, Pidge walked into his bedroom and told him to follow her.

The Garrison had made them lock away their lions for months on end. Their counter argument was that it would help the paladins heal. But in truth, it was doing the complete opposite to them.  

 Pidge had led him to their lions’ bay and unlocked it within seconds.

  _“What are you doing?”_

 She had grinned up at him, giving him the same grin she gave the team whenever she was successful in hacking a system or a ship. It now sent chills down his spine.

  _“We’re going flying Lance.”_

 Flying became both of their coping mechanisms, even though they got disapproval from many Garrison officials. But at the end of the day, they hadn’t been through all the shit they had.

 _They didn’t have a clue_.

Slowly but steadily, Lance found himself becoming more relaxed and calm. The anxiety was still there, but it wasn’t as bad as it once had been.

 Little did he know how badly he was falling for her.

 The realization had hit him one night when they sat in Green’s hanger. She had been working on a small robot, completely focused on rewiring it and he felt his heart race.

Without giving it a second thought, he walked up to her and kissed her. Of course, he was mentally kicking himself for it, but when he went to pull away, she pulled him back.

 That had been three years ago.

 He heard a small yawn and smiled softly. A few seconds later, she had turned around to face him, amber eyes searching his and caramel curls sticking up in every direction.

 He would never get tired of waking up to this. To her.

"Morning, beautiful.”

 She gave him a sleepy smile and snuggled closer into him, closing any remaining distance between them. He kissed her on the forehead gently.

 “Sleep well?” he whispered into her hair.

 She hummed in contentment before lifting her head up to kiss him.

Soft lips met chapped and Lance was convinced she was going to be the death of him.

 Her lips lingered on his before pulling away completely.

And even though it was short and sweet, it still managed make both of their hearts race.

 They had stayed like that for a moment longer; intertwined with each other, sharing lazy kisses before Blue scratched at the bedroom door, signalling it was time to get up.

“Your cat is high maintenance.”

 Lance faked a look of hurt as he walked over to the white Persian cat and scooped her up. He held her as if she was an actual baby.

 “Don’t say that in front of our child! She's sensitive!” He kissed the top of the cats fluffy head. “Isn’t that right princess?”

 Katie rolled her eyes and walked by him, not acknowledging the cat on her way out.

 Lance watched as she left the room, making sure she had gone into the bathroom before placing Blue back on the ground and hurried over to his bedside table, a feeling of relief washing over him as he opened the draw and saw the velvet ring box still in its place.

 A feeling of nervousness washed over him as he changed quickly into his jeans and white shirt, before taking the box and placing it in his jacket’s pocket.

 He had been planning it out for awhile now and he was finally going to do it. He was going to propose to her.

 Chances were that sooner or later, they will be called back into action.  He wasn’t going to risk it. He was going to do it before it was too late.

 

* * *

 

Once the Castle of Lions was rebuilt for the paladins, there was a discussion that went on for multiple days on whether Voltron was in fact needed anymore. The Galaxy Garrison wanted to keep them grounded, while the alien races wanted to see Voltron take to the sky again.  After countless arguments and hours spent trying to find a solution, everyone had come to an agreement.

 The paladins would still be active with the exception that no more than two were sent into space at a time. The others were to stay on Earth, with the agreement that they would have full access to their lions.  

 It was a compromise everyone was fully comfortable with.

 Hunk and Keith had been stationed at the castle for a little over a month now and after the millionth blank message that was intercepted, they were starting to feel a little stir crazy.

 “Sooo Keith, anything exciting happening on your end of the ship?”  Hunk asked awkwardly, uncomfortable with the silence in the room.

 Keith simply shrugged at the question and took another sip of his coffee, bored out of his mind.

 Of course, they understood the roles and responsibilities, but at the end of the day, after looking at empty messages for countless hours, they would get a little bored.

 As Hunk was about to break the silence yet again, a red error message appeared on the castle’s screens, catching their attention immediately.

 “Alright Hunk! Finally some action! “ Keith said while cracking his knuckles.

 Turning around, Hunk pulled up the message onto his console, typing away furiously, trying to find it’s source. It only took a matter of seconds however, and when the identity of the source popped up in bold letters on the screen, he felt himself become physically ill.

 “Keith...call Allura immediately.”

 He nodded and called for Allura over the comms, before making his way over to Hunk.

 “What’s going on?”

 Hunk pointed towards the photo of an alien standing in lava as if it was merely water. A look of complete evil was plastered on the face and it made their skin crawl.

 Keith sucked in a breath. “Is that-?”

 “Yeah.” Hunk said monotone. “I’m going to contact Lance.”

* * *

 

 Millions of stars could be seen for miles on end from their garden where they walked in comfortable silence.

 Pidge had been completely awestruck by all the constellations that could be seen, while Lance was beyond nervous. It was now or never.

Taking her hand in his, he stopped her in her tracks. Pidge turned to look at him, curiosity and wonder clear in her eyes, sending chills down his spine within seconds.

 “Katie.” He whispered hoarsely, taking both of her hands in his. “I love you.”

She smiled softly at him “ I love you too, Lance.”

  _This is it._ He thought. _Now or never_.

Taking his hands from hers, he slowly started to go down one knee, while pulling the ring box out of his pocket.

 Pidge had tears in her eyes already.

 “I know we are still young and got a lot of growing up to do, but honestly? I don’t think I can do it without you.” His chest felt tight.

 "Out of all the shit this entire universe has given us, I’ll forever be grateful for it bringing us together. We have had countless adventures together and I want that to continue. Forever.”

 They were both crying.

 “So, Katie Holt. Will you do me the utmost honor and marry me?”

 The ring was a simple silver band with a small emerald in the center. It wasn’t anything fancy or over the top, but it was very her.

 Pidge nodded, wiping away her tears, before holding out her hand.

 “Always.”

 


	2. Distance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here bois ! finally!   
> ;))

“Hey man, it’s Hunk.”

It was barely dawn when Lance had finally picked up his phone.

“Yeah I know it’s you Hunk,” he hissed into the phone “What was apparently so urgent you had to call me at this time?”

His eyes wandered over to where Pidge laid sleeping. He wanted nothing more than to lay back down next to her; to continue tracing the tiny freckles that dusted over her body, just like he had done hours ago.

“-Lance.”

Hunk brought his attention back and away from her. “Sorry Hunk, it glitched. Repeat?”

Hunk sighed “I said, we need you to suit up and fly out here asap.”

This got his attention.

“What's going on?”

There was a pause before he replied. “Because our scanners have… picked up something alarming. And we’re gonna need Red’s capabilities. We’ll talk more when you get here. Just trust me, okay?”

And with that the phone call ended.

A sinking feeling clawed at him as he looked back over to Pidge, who was still sound asleep. Chewing on his lip anxiously, he made his way over to their bed and got behind her, wrapping his shaking arms around her as she leaned into his touch.

Whatever it was, it was bad. Lance knew that much.

Still, just for a moment longer, he wanted to pretend everything was still okay, and that he wasn’t going to be seperated from her for more than a few days, a week at most. But that was just wishful thinking and he knew that.

That was one of the many sacrifices they had to make. To be able to drop everything and anything and fly out without a moment's notice, with no questions asked.

Even if they desperately didn't want to.

And it sucked. Alot.   
Lance couldn't help but feel that whenever he took a step forward in life, the universe would come and push him two steps back. It was a never-ending loop and he was tired.

He was tired of the nightmares that haunted him to this day. Tired of the looks he got when he was out in public, simply minding his own business while trying to buy a coffee. And yet to so many others it was a huge thing for them. And he resented all of it.

The feeling of a cold hand pressing into his cheek snapped him out of his thoughts and brought his mind back to the present.   
Katie was facing him now. It was not until she wiped away a tear did he realise that he had been crying.

“Nightmare?” She asked calmly.

He shook his head and took a shaky breath before responding.

“.. I have to leave.”

She pulled away from him slightly, with her amber eyes looking into his with worry.

“Hunk… called me. He said that something alarming was picked up on one of the scanners-”

“-and they need you to fly out because of you and your lion’s capabilities.” she had put the pieces together before he even had time to finish explaining.

“Exactly.”

*

After everything the team had been through, everyone had agreed to never say goodbye before leaving to go on a mission of their own. It had become a healing method for them whenever one of them had to venture out into deep space. It was a weird superstition they had, but after all the shit that was thrown at them, they didn’t question it.

Yet, a feeling of uneasiness settled in Katie’s stomach as she looked out of the kitchen window, while taking a sip of her coffee. Something felt off as she watched Lance fly away in Red, and the fact that she couldn't pinpoint what it was irked her beyond belief.

It wasn’t as if this was the first time Lance had to leave immediately. In fact they all had, at one point, been called to the castle to switch shifts with a paladin when needed. And as much as they hated it that's just how it was.

So why was she feeling dread as soon as Lance had left the atmosphere?

Running a hand through her hair, Pidge pushed the worry to the back of her mind. There was no point in worrying over something that didn’t even matter. Not when there was work to be done.

Putting her finished coffee mug in the sink, she made her way into her office.

Dark wooden floors were covered with various parts of tech and cables from every direction. Lance would often whine at her, telling her it was a hazard zone, when in reality she liked to think it was just ‘organized chaos.’

After all, a little mess never hurt anybody.

*  
Lance immediately felt everyone's anxiety as soon as he stepped foot onto the observation deck. Multiple screens had been spread out around the room, some already overloaded with data.

Allura sat hunched over in a chair, her hands visibly shaking. Keith had his arms around her, rubbing her back in an attempt to soothe her. Whatever it was, it had to have been serious enough to get the princess to shut down. Hunk and Coran were typing away at multiple screens and consoles, not seeming to notice Lance had even come aboard.

Clearing his throat, he got their attention. “What’s going on?”

Hunk looked at his friend with tired eyes as he slid a data pad in his direction.

“It’s bad Lance.”

He looked at screen. “What do you mean? How bad are we talking?”

Allura spoke before Hunk could reply. “We’ve picked up signals from Altean technology.”

Lance swore he felt the room grow ten times colder as soon as Allura spoke.

“Okay…? How is that a problem? You guys knew you weren’t the last ones anymore.”

The room became deathly quiet, no one really knew how to answer.

“Lance. The signal is coming from a planet that is...logically speaking, too hot for any form of life to live on.” Hunk’s voice was monotone, he was clearly drained from exhaustion.

Anxiety gnawed at the bottom at of his stomach as he processed Hunk’s words.

“And Red has the heat capabilities to check this shit out without burning away.”

Hunk sighed. “Pretty much, yeah.”

“When do I have to go?”

“As soon as we get some more data.”

*  
Green nuzzled Katie in the back of her mind as she worked away on her laptop. It had been a few weeks since Lance had been called to go to the castle of lions and judging from his messages, he was going to be up in space for a little while longer.   
And for the most part, she had been fine. She continued to work on projects for the Garrison, and still went to her family's monthly Sunday dinners. But for the last week, she had started to feel more anxious, almost to the point where she felt nauseous. It was irritating her beyond belief.

_“Whatcha working on?”_

Katie smiled at her lion’s ever growing curiosity. “I’m working on a new security program for the team.”

Green tilted her head in curiosity. _“Why?”_

“Because the Garrison is shady as hell Green.”

Silence.

_“Why?”_

Her typing faltered for a brief second. A wave of nausea hit her unexpectedly. She took a few breaths before answering her lion’s question.“Because they’re full of lies. And before you ask, yes I am aware most people in the Garrison are nice. But that doesn't mean a little precaution won't hurt anybody.”

_“Why?”_

Groaning at her lion’s never ending curiosity, she closed her laptop lid with a thud. There was no way she’d be able to concentrate with Green’s constant questions, and the feeling of sickness that refused to go away.

“Green...am I dying? Because if I am, my body’s taking a long ass time to kill me.”

Green walked away from her conscience, clearly unfazed by her paladins question. 

“Traitor.” she huffed.

Blue had started to meow outside of the office door, demanding to be loved. It only made her irritation grow.

“Stupid Lance and his stupid demanding cat” she muttered under her breath, getting up from her chair to let Blue in. As she opened the door for the cat, the sound of a low ringing came from one of the communicators she had built for the team after the war.

Raising a brow, she pressed the answer button as soon as she sat down.

Lance’s face appeared on the screen seconds later, and she felt her heart drop. The look on his face was one she hadn’t seen in almost a year and it sent chills down her spine. He was in Red, that much she could make out.

“Katie.” he breathed.

“Lance? Did something happen?”

She couldn’t panic. Everything was fine. He was just probably calling to say that he loved her.

“Katie...I need you to send the castle a message.”

She took in a sharp breath. “Why? What’s wrong with your systems?’

Lance looked pale. “I tried. They aren’t responding to me.-”

She cut him off. “What? You’re joking right? Lance please tell me that you're joking.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, visibly anxious.

“I wish I was.”

She felt sick.

“Lance…”

A loud blasting sound was heard, even over the transmission. Red could be seen being rattled.

He had been hit.

Lance took a sharp intake of breath, as he steadied out Red before lunging the lion forward.

“Katie it’s going to be -”

A bright flash could be seen over the transmission, followed by Lance’s pained screams. Tears had already started to form in her eyes, her mind on the brink of flight or fight.

And then, everything went deathly quiet. The screams, the noise, everything. It was like a heart machine had just flatlined and no one knew what to do.

He was gone.

 


	3. Left in the dark

This couldn't be happening.

Pidge could feel her chest tighten as the realization started to settle in. The team had no way of reaching Lance and for all they knew, everything was still going according to plan.

Putting her emotions on the backburner, Pidge ran out to Green's personal hangar. There was no time to panic and she knew that. She also knew that she was throwing every rule that was set in place by the Garrison out the window, and at that moment? It was a risk she was willing to take.

Everything went by in a haze as she threw on her paladin armor and ran into her lion’s waiting mouth.

"We gotta go girl." she muttered as she settled into her seat and started up Green's engine.

With a few button presses, Pidge enabled Green’s cloaking mechanism and launched the lion into the earth’s outer atmosphere.

She needed to reach the others immediately.

 

*

 

The castle was dark.

Hunk typed away at the castle engine’s command panel, and became more frustrated with every error message that appeared on the screen.Truth be told, he wasn’t as experienced as Pidge was with this sort of thing, but she wasn’t there and he was the team’s next best option.

Everyone was trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Everything seemed to change within a second. One minute they were on the observation deck, going over data as per usual and then the next thing they knew, they were floating in zero G.

The power had been cut short and there was no way of contacting anyone. To make the situation even more shit, the lions were now locked within their hangars. So there was no getting out. They were stranded.

And the worst part? They couldn't waste the emergency power supply for unnecessary things like lights in the whole ship. So they were stranded in space, with no communication, and left in the dark.

Everything was just going peachy.

Hunk slammed his fists down on the keyboard, frustrated as a familiar ‘Unknown Error’ dialog popped onto the screen.

“You piece of shit!” Hunk cussed and stepped away from the console.

“Everything okay in here?”

Coran gave him a sympathetic smile as he handed him a drink.

Hunk took it with a sigh “I’m just getting frustrated. I’ve tried everything I can think of, but nothing is working.”

Coran nodded, giving him a sympathetic look before gesturing for Hunk to follow him.

The pair made their way back onto the observation deck, where everyone else was located and worked to the point of near exhaustion.

“Hunk! Were you able to make any progress?” Allura asked as soon as she noticed Hunk walk in.

He shook his head “Not even a bit. Whatever hit us...hit us hard.”

Allura’s expression visibly dropped.

“Why can’t we just turn on the emergency power supply already?” Keith questioned as the Altean approached him.

“Because we need to save as much power as we can. We barely have enough to keep the oxygen stabilizers going.”

“Why not turn it on so we can have access to our lions and get help?”

Allura ran a hand through her hair, visibly annoyed. “Because Keith, we can’t just up and abandon the castle. Especially when we don’t even know what started this whole mess in the first place.”

“But-”

Golden light filled the observation deck within seconds, making everyone inside shield their eyes at the sudden brightness. It took them a couple seconds, but once everyone’s eyes had adjusted to the brightness, they were looking up at Green’s face.

“Pidge.”

 

*

 

Everything was floating, drifting, out of reach.

Lance groaned as he started to feel the pain that was pounding in the back of his head. Pain was everywhere in his body, and yet all he wondered was:

_“How long had I been out for?”_

Red's warning alarms blared loudly, making it near impossible for Lance to fall back into a pain-induced sleep.

"Argh..."

He scrunched his nose up at the pain, before slowly opening his eyes to see what the damage was exactly.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

Metal was cast about in the cockpit with various pieces of broken glass and wires to accompany them. Red had taken a serious beating. That much was obvious.

He tried to stand up, but a searing pain shot through his leg, making him cry out at the pain.

Looking down at his legs, he immediately saw the damage.

A giant piece of metal had pierced through the paladin armor and into his thigh, keeping him pinned down in the seat.

"Oh.”

Red purred sympathyitly in the back of his mind.

"Red… help me..Please.” he bit back a sob, collapsing into his seat in exhaustion from the pain.

 _"It's going to be alright,"_ Red told him soothingly. Like a mother comforting her distressed child, in a weird sort of way. If it weren’t for the fact he was in so much pain, he would have been insulted at the gesture.

"What happened girl?" he coughed.

Red became hesitant to answer him, and quite frankly, he wasn't looking forward to finding out the answer

_"You discovered one of Lotor's main work bases.You tried to reach the others but communications were cut."_

He nodded.

"Right...why do I think you're holding back something from me Red?" He looked up at the room of the cockpit, smirking half heartedly.

Red didn't answer him for a good solid ten minutes before finally entering back into his consciousness.

"Hello again Red."

_"Once you realized you couldn't get through to the others you contacted Katie. "_

Lance felt his heart go into his throat.

_“Don't worry though, she's with the others now. They're both safe."_

The last bit caught his attention. "What do you mean _they’re_  Red?"

Red walked away from his consciousness, telling him the conversation was well and truly over.

 

*

The moment Pidge had landed Green in her hangar, everyone felt a weight lift off from their shoulders. Because if anyone could figure out what the ever loving fuck was going on, it would be her.

Yet, when she came barreling into the room, they could immediately tell something a lot more worse had happened than a simple power outage just from the look of anxiety on Pidge’s features.

“Pidge-” Keith breathed, brows furrowing in concern.

She interrupted,“When was the last time you guys had power?”

“I don’t know? Maybe forty-eight hours?” Hunk replied with a cringe.

Pidge cussed under her breath. She turned around and headed in the direction towards the castle’s engine core.

Everyone followed after her, making sure to keep up with the small paladin.

“How did you know to come here anyway? Did Lance contact you or something?” Hunk asked as he walked next to her.

She stopped in her footsteps, biting back a sob that threatened to escape the back of her throat.

There wasn’t time to panic. She couldn’t.

Allura placed her hand cautiously on her shoulder.

“Pidge?” her tone was gentle.

Pidge shook her head, before she continued her way down the dark hallway.

“Yeah...he did.” was all she managed to say before they had reached the engines room.

Everyone seemed to let out a sigh of relief, completely oblivious to what had happened barely hours ago.

She began typing away at the console, entering in the startup codes effortlessly.

“Lance got hit.” She whispered.

The room felt colder.

“Hit how exactly?” Keith questioned.

She didn't stop typing. “He contacted me after he couldn't get ahold of the castle. He wanted me to deliver a message to everyone.”

Everyone was listening intently.

"And? What is the message?" Keith prodded.

She sighed. "I don't know. Like I said, it all happened so fast. One minute he was on my screen and then.."

She squeezed her eyes shut, cringing at the memory of Lance's pained screams.

"And then...?" It was Allura's turn to prod her for the info.

"And then he was gone."

The room felt ten times colder than when they had first entered it. The weight of Pidge's words hit them hard.

For a couple of minutes, no one said anything. They couldn't. So instead, they just listened to Pidge type away at the console and let their own thoughts consume them.

It wasn't until a loud ding sounded in the room and brought everyone's attention back from their thoughts.

Pidge sighed. "Got it."

Moments later the lights in the castle started up again and the ship hummed back to life.

"Did you find out what it was?" Hunk asked

"Yeah. But It doesn't make any sense."

"What do you mean?"

Pidge furrowed her brows in concentration as she looked at the data.

"It's pure quintessence."

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter ^^;  
> also a huge thank you to my friend astrearose for constantly putting up with me.


	4. Waiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than most so oops. It's currently unedited but I'm sick and want to post this now so...yeet. please enjoy.

Forty-eight hours.

Forty-eight hours and Red was still offline. The comms weren't working yet and Lance was becoming desperate. He had no food, water or any means of flying anytime soon. And to top it all off? There was a large piece of metal keeping him pinned down to his chair. All in all, things weren't looking too great.

“..Red? You still there girl?” His voice was weak from the lack of use.

There was no response.

Anxiety clawed at his insides as he tried not to think about what had happened to Red and himself. Surely, his lion was fine. Chances were that Red was just recharging, because whatever had hit them, had hit them hard.

He needed to get the metal out of his leg. That much was obvious. He had considered all possible options and outcomes. On one hand, if he left the metal in his leg, it raised a higher risk of infection. On the other hand, if he took it out, he could accidentally slip up and cause more damage.

Both outcomes had cons.

He felt tired. He had spent the last two days basically asleep and yet when he woke up, he felt worse.

With sleepy eyes, he glanced down at the metal shard that was poking out of his leg and then glanced back up at the roof of the cockpit.

"...If you're here Red, I would appreciate it if you didn't judge my poor life choices." He paused and took a breath."Well, at least not this one."

Managing to unbuckle his belt from his waist, he managed to lift his thigh up just enough to slip it underneath it. He paused for a minute, taking a moment to breathe through the pain that seared through his leg, before continuing.

Once he was convinced the belt was on tight enough, he prepared himself.

"This is going to hurt like a bitch," he muttered under his breath, before placing his hands on the metal shard- and pulled.

Tears streamed down his cheeks as pain washed over him; he wanted to vomit. Never in his life had he felt pain this excruciating.

"Shit! Fuck! Shit!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

The metal shard was a lot deeper and thicker than what he had expected it to be. Yet, he continued to pull on it.

_"Stop."_

Red's voice was stern in the back of his mind, almost as if she was a mother who had just caught her child stealing from the cookie jar.

He immediately froze.

_"I know you're scared. But please refrain from trying to pull that metal out by yourself."_

Lance frowned. "But we can't stay stranded out here for much longer girl."

Red gave a small, but reassuring purr in response. _"Rest."_

*

For the first time in months, Katie couldn’t sleep.

Endless thoughts were running through her mind as she tossed and turned in her bed, as her mind ran with various scenarios of what could have happened to Lance and where he was. To top it all off, she was feeling nauseous and more irritable than usual.

Everyone had been working to the brink of exhaustion since she had discovered the leak. Allura and her had worked closely together as they ran tests to make sure the castle wasn't infected from the inside. After a day of multiple scans and tests, the castle seemed clear.

Normally, they would prioritize something like this; often spending a few days to run the tests to be extra certain. But time was limited and there were more pressing concerns.

Rolling over for what felt like the hundredth time, Katie let out a tired groan, before kicking the blanket off to sit up. At this point, the was no point in trying to sleep.

Grabbing her jacket her cluttered desk, she left her room and headed towards the kitchen. Maybe all she needed was a drink of water and then the nausea would go. That's what she hoped for at least.

When the doors slid open, she hadn't expected to find anyone in the kitchen. But at the same time, she wasn't surprised when she saw Hunk sitting on the bar stool, with his head in his hands.

"Can’t sleep either huh?" She asked as she walked by him, heading straight for the fridge.

Hunk sat up, slightly startled and alert, before relaxing immediately when he saw that it was her.

"Yeah...something like that."

Katie raised a brow "Something on your mind Hunk?"

Hunk didn't look at her and instead found more interest in fumbling the cap of his water bottle.

"Something like that I guess." he muttered.

With a sigh, Katie closed the fridge door and walked over to the counter before sitting down on the stool next to his.

"Want to talk about it?"

Hunk let out a strained sob and her heart immediately dropped.

"It's my fault Katie. I was the one who called for Lance to come here and..." he paused. "...If I hadn't called for Lance he would still be at home; safe and sound."

She wanted to say something, anything really, to comfort him. But she felt like she was going to throw up at any second and that was the last thing she wanted. Especially now.

She placed her head down on the cool countertop, taking deep breaths to try and ease the nausea.

"Katie?" Hunk sounded worried.

There was no avoiding it, covering her mouth with her hand, she ran from her seat and heaved into the kitchen sink. She heard Hunk gasp before he hurriedly made his way to her and held back her hair as she continued to throw up. She made a mental note to do his chores for at least a month afterwards.

He didn't say anything as he walked with her to bathrooms after she was done.

Part of her hoped that Hunk wouldn't be there when she came back out but another part of her was relieved when she saw him still standing outside the door.

"Agh Hunk I'm so sorry.."

Hunk raised a hand and dismissed her apology altogether. "Do you think it might be anxiety? Or do you think you're coming down with something?"

They began walking down the hallway, cautious not to speak too loudly lest they wake anyone up.

"I don't know? I mean we're all under a lot of stress currently. It's probably nothing."

He hummed in response and the pair settled into a comfortable silence until they had reached her room.

She opened the door, before turning around to give Hunk a quick hug. He was taken back by her quick movements.

"It’s not your fault Hunk." she hadn't forgotten their earlier conversation. “We’ll find him and everything will be fine. "

*

The blue sky soared above them as she ran ahead of Lance in her mother's wedding dress. Katie's laughs were music to his ears as he ran after her, being careful not to trip on the uneven ground. She stopped and turned to face him; caramel locks blew behind her and he was left speechless.

She was so beautiful.

She held out her hand for him and he reached for it.

His heart squeezed as he took a step towards her, never dropping his gaze from his bride.

A sharp pain ran through his leg and everything else faded from around him.

It wasn't real.

Lance slammed his hand down on the chair as he let out a scream of frustration. He needed to get back to the castle. But more importantly, he needed to get back to Katie.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to sit up the best that he could before placing his hands back on the metal shard.

"..We gotta get help girl."

The lion gave him a short purr in response.

He wanted nothing more than to pull the metal out but Red was right. It would cause more harm than good. But at the same time, he needed to get the wound treated as soon as possible.

Red was pacing anxiously in his mind, causing him to feel the anxious as well.

"What's going on Red?" He asked with a sigh.

The lion seemed to stop her pacing but still remained silent.

Lance prompted her again "Talk to me girl. What's going on?"

_"I'm trying to reach the other lions."_

He let out a small groan "And you're only doing that now?!"

Red ignored his sarcastic comment and continued _"I needed to wait until I had recharged enough. The connection would of been extremely weak otherwise."_

Lance nodded in understanding. "Right.. well continue..doing what you're doing. I'll just..be here?"

_"There's no need."_

"Pardon?"

If Red could roll her eyes, she would have. Sometimes he was so oblivious, even if he didn't realize it.

_"Green just responded."_

*

_"Hey, you've reached Katie! I'm currently away right now so lea-"_

With shaking hands Colleen pressed the red 'end call' button for the hundredth time that week.

It was very unlike her daughter to leave her calls unanswered let alone her texts. Especially for over a week.

Something was wrong. She could sense it.

Colleen often thought she had a great motherly intuition when it came to both of her children. Especially after the war. Oftenly, she got both of them to call her at least once a week, so she could stay somewhat in the loop.

So the fact that it had been nearly two weeks without a call from Katie, sent alarm bells ringing in her mind.

The Garrison had reassured her that everything was fine and that there had been no complications with the paladins following the rules. But part of her heavily doubted them because the garrison was notorious for keeping information, even from the immediate families.

So she was going to take matters into her own hands.

Sam was away on business and going into the garrison with her limited clearance was going to be risky, but she had her ways.

Grabbing her car keys from the side board, she dialed a number to an old friend.

"Hello? This is Iverson-"

She cut him off "Hey, it's me. I'm going to need your help." 

*

Pidge couldn’t stop herself from replaying a conversation she had had with Hunk while they worked away in Green's hangar earlier that morning.

_After the whole throwing up in the sink incident, Hunk had become suspicious of her. And it was starting to become noticeable._

_“I know you probably don't want to hear this-"_

_She raised a brow at him "Then why are you going to tell me?"_

_Hunk sighed at the curt response."Have you thought about maybe...you know..?"_

_"Maybe..I know...what?" she prompted._

_He rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed. "Have you thought about maybe taking a pregnancy test?"_

_She dropped the pen she had been fidgeting with. "Why would I do that?"_

_"Because, Pidge, you have the symptoms. All the signs are there."_

_She was at a loss for words. Never in her whole twenty-five years of life had she ever been asked this question- and of all people to ask it, it was Hunk._

_She couldn't believe it._

_"Wow, Hunk. Nice of you to just assume that I'm pregnant simply because I've been feeling slightly nauseous. I really thought we were over the stereotypes of women and sickness."_

_Hunk stood up. "Pidge that's not what-"_

_She didn't bother to pack up her notes or laptop. She needed to leave the hanger before she said or did something she regretted._

_But holy shit was she pissed_.

_“I can't believe you Hunk. It's probably anxiety if anything else and yet, here you are claiming that I'm pregnant. Do you really think I wouldn't know?"_

_She made her way to the door, with Hunk following close behind._

_"Pidge, please. that's not what I was suggesting-"_

_She raised a hand at him. "Forget it Hunk.”_

_And with that, she had left him standing there, confused as to what had actually had happened._

With a groan, she got out of bed and walked to her desk. Of course, now she was feeling bad for snapping at Hunk, but she wasn't going to apologize just yet. Not when she could get physical proof. A while back, she had put some tests in her desk draw on the castle as a precaution. Just in case they had to be out in space for long periods of time again.

She guessed now was a better time than any.

Everyone on the ship was on the observation deck, last time she checked. so she didn't have to worry about someone barging into her room just yet.

If anything, she couldn't wait to see the look of defeat on Hunk's face when she showed him the negative test.

But, when the three minutes were up, she was the one to be defeated. Because it was there, clear as day.

_‘Pregnant 2-3 weeks.'_

She felt her heart stop.

"Holy fucking shit."

Green was nudging at the back of her mind, trying desperately to get her paladins attention.

Quickly snapping out of her daze, Katie covered the pregnancy test with an old shirt. She could worry that later.

"What's the matter Green?" She asked soothingly, trying to calm the anxious lion.

The lion didn't calm, and that worried her.

_"Red contacted us. I know their location."_

Katie let out a choked sob and immediately wrote down the coordinates Green gave and ran to the observation deck.

Everyone looked startled to see her run in at lightning speed, interrupting whatever conversation they had going.

Tears brimmed her eyes as she walked up to her team and handed Keith the coordinates.

"It's Lance."


	5. Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is also long oof. Hope you guys enjoy!

The silence that filled Red was almost maddening.

Lance was barely hanging on. Barely surviving. Red had stopped talking to him after she had alerted him about Green. When she had told him that Green had picked up on their location, for the first time since crashing, he felt somewhat optimistic. That maybe, just maybe, his family would find him in time.

But that was days ago, and since then there was nothing but silence.

Part of him wanted to believe that the team, his family, were on their way to save him. But a bigger part of him was convinced that maybe Red had lied to him. That maybe, the lion could sense that he wasn’t going to get out of this alive. Not this time.

And if that was really the case, he understood the reasoning behind Red’s lie. She didn’t want him to die thinking the team wasn’t searching for him and yet, he was pretty convinced he was going to die waiting anyway.

His body was beginning to fail from the lack of water and food. In all honesty he was impressed he had even made it this far.

Taking his helmet off for the first time, he wiped away the sweat and dried blood from his forehead. There was no point in wearing it anymore anyway.

“.. Hnngh.” He cringed at the pain that ran through his shoulders as he lifted up his arm.

There was one last thing he needed to do.

With a few deep breaths, he forced a smile and hit the small ‘record’ button on his suits control panel.

“... If you're watching this, chances are I'm no longer here.”

It felt almost wrong to do this.

“-And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for letting you all down like this.” He glanced apologetically at the camera.

“You guys were the best team I've ever had the privilege of being apart of. And you're my family.” 

They always were going to be. After all the shit they had seen, the endless battles in deep space, being defenders of the never ending broken universe- You never truly forget something like that. 

He took a minute to breathe. 

“I want you to know that I only have one regret in my life..and that's not being able to live to see Katie walk down the aisle. To not have a family with her like I've dreamed about since I first realized that I loved her. “

He wiped at the tears that had managed to escape.

“Katie. I love you… And I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry.”

A red box appeared on the screen, alerting him that there was minimal charge left.

It was time to say goodbye.

“I know that this is going to hurt. I wish it didn't but I know that that's impossible. Mourn me but please, for all of your sakes, learn to move on in time. I-”

The screen disappeared as the suit powered off for the final time, cutting him off entirely. And maybe the was for the best he thought.

Because for the first time in years, he was crying like he had never cried before.

*

Everything about the Garrison was bullshit. That much had been obvious to Colleen the moment they had covered up Sam and Matt’s abduction as a simple ‘mission failure’.

And yet they still continued to bullshit through everything - even after the war.

"Colleen? Love?"

It was nearly four in the morning. She hadn't slept until she found what she was looking for. Sam's voice was tired and she partly felt bad for waking him up, but this was something that couldn't be put off.

"I'm sorry for waking you." She sighed. "I know that you're busy on the Atlas right now but this couldn't wait."

She heard the rustling of bed sheets on the other end.

"Is something wrong?" He sounded more alert than he did worried.

"More or less. Katie and Lance haven't been in contact with me or anyone at the Garrison for over a week now. But there also haven’t been any recent paladin changes-"

She was cut off by her sons sudden voice, making her jump in her seat.

"They probably said 'fuck it' and eloped, ya know. Shit knows I would do that just to avoid the gossip."

Sam could be heard groaning at his sons interruption, because even at 26 years old Matt still insisted on eavesdropping whenever he could.

"I'm not convinced love." She smiled sadly at Matt and put the phone on speaker.

“I managed to get ahold of the recent log dates- thanks it Iverson. They haven’t switched or contacted home base for over two weeks.”

Sam interjected. "Want us to try and contact the castle when we get back to the milky way?"

"Please. And be as discreet as you can."

*

Everyone had been quiet as they traveled in their lions to Lance's coordinates.

It had been a easy decision for everyone on what they should do when Katie had come running through the doors, shaking from the adrenaline alone.

They had looked up the coordinates and much to their surprise, Lance's location wasn't as far as they had feared. But because of this, it made getting to him a whole lot trickier. Because they had all agreed on not contacting the Garrison. Because with their track record, they wouldn't have done much to help Lance. And the lions were a better alternative as opposed to traveling in the castle or Atlas.

Even if that meant it would take longer than usual.

The more discrete, the better.

Katie felt like her mind was going at a hundred miles per hour as the silence lingered in the lions. It was almost as if her mind was on a endless loop of ‘what ifs’.

What if they didn't find him? Or what if he was already gone by the time they reached him?

What if he never got to see his unborn child?

That thought sent chills down her spine.

"Uh guys?" Keith's voice crackled through the comms.

Hunk yawnked "Yeah man?"

"I see Red."

Katie immediately became alert.

"And it doesn't look good."

And it wasn't. That much was obvious the second they landed their lions on the soft terrain on the planet.

Red's outer body was completely dented and scratched - most likely from the impact of crashing. Some of her paint had been scratched off and she was tangled up in her own metal paws.

God only knew what the inside was like.

"Okay team," Keith's voice cut through again. "This is the plan. Pidge, we'll send you first. Out of all of us I think Lance would be the most calm seeing you first."

She bit her lip and stood up from her seat. "Roger that."

"Allura, Hunk, I want you to follow in after Pidge. Wait outside of the cockpit first though until Pidge gives the all clear."

"And what about you?" Allura interjected. "What will you be doing?"

Keith didn't waste a second. "I'm going to do a quick scan of the area before watching all of your backs."

“All right then. Let's bring the lover boy back home." Hunk said.

*

They had to climb through Red's stomach hatch in order to get inside.

It wasn't the quickest way to reach the cockpit but this was their only choice. And in this case, beggars couldn't be choosers.

The inside of Red was a lot worse than they had thought. Cables and various shards of metal and broken parts where strewn about everywhere, leaving almost everything in sight ruined.

"Holy shit," Hunk cursed under his breath as they made their way up to the cockpit.

"Pidge?" Allura placed her hand on her shoulder when they reached the door. "Are you certain about going in there alone?"

She gave Allura's hand a reassuring squeeze. "Definitely."

Activating her bayard, she managed to pry open the sealed cockpit doors and squeeze her way through and into the room.

And her heart immediately stopped.

Everything was covered in red. The windows, the broken cables and metal. Everything around the chair was just red with blood.

Tentatively, she made her way over Lances chair, and sucked in a breath when she saw the sight of him.

She saw the infected leg and the six inch shard of metal that was stuck in the wound. She saw all the dried blood that covered him from the chin, chest and arms.

She needed to act fast.

"Lance...Lance are you there? Can you hear me?" She kneeled down to get a better look at him. To check that he still had a pulse.

Placing her two fingers on the side of his neck, she was silently praying for there to be a pulse. Her hands were shaking with both adrenaline and anxiety. She held her breath, tears already threatening to fall because she couldn't find it.

Until she did.

Letting out a sob she gently placed her hand on his jaw and gently rubbed her thumb against it.

"Baby you have to wake up now.” Her voice was soft.

His brows furrowed in a light crease and he slowly started to stir.

"Lance?"

Lance’s bright blue eyes shot open and immediately met her gaze. She was never going to take advantage of being able to look into his eyes again.

"K...Katie?" his voice was hoarse, most likely from the lack of use.

"We're going to get you out of here okay?"

Lance managed a small nod and leaned into her touch. Slowly, she leaned down and kissed him as gently as she could before pulling away. Activating her bayard, she headed back towards the door and pried it open for the rest of the team.

They had to act fast. There was only so much Allura could do the help soothe the pain in Lance's leg as Katie began to fasten her belt at the tip of the wound. She then gave the all clear for Hunk to start pulling the metal out.

For most of it Lance was quiet and looked at anything other than the giant piece of metal that was being pulled from his leg.

Until a sharp pain seared through it, causing him to cry out from the pain.

"Gotcha!" Hunk said through clenched teeth, yanking the last piece of metal out from the wound and placed it behind him.

"Allura I need you to take off your belt too," Hunk told her, as he began to unbuckle his own. "We need to seal the wound the best way we can until get back home."

The Altean nodded and before long Lance’s leg was being held together with the best way they had until they got back.

"Agh..." Lance hissed at pain the moment Hunk and Allura started to lift him. "This is going to hurt like a bitch, isn't it?"

Hunk gave him an apologetic smile in return. "Afraid so."

All he could manage was a groan.

*

They were halfway to their lions when Katie suddenly realized something, and it made her sick to her stomach.

"Guys?"

They turned to look at her.

"Where's Keith?"

It was as if a bomb had gone off as the realization hit them all at once. The ground began to tremble as a ship headed in their direction. A ship they recognized all too well.

They had been ambushed.

"Everyone go!" Katie screamed above the loud engine that hovered above them and everyone didn't hesitate to move.

A smaller pod began to float down towards them. They we're almost out of time.

And that was exactly what they needed. Time.

Her legs began to shake as she came to a sudden halt on the ground. Tears fell as she watched her family run for their lions. They were almost there.

But before she could even comprehend what was happening, she felt a pair of hands grab her by the collar and toss her in the direction of her lion as if she was nothing but a doll.

Pain seared through her body as she landed hard against her lion’s metal claws.

But that was the least of her concerns.

Her vision was blurry as she struggled to find her ground. She needed to get out of there and quickly too. At most, she needed to be in the protection of her lion for both of their sakes.

"-Idge? Are you there?!" Hunk's voice sounded faint, as though he was talking behind a closed door.

"I'm here," she groaned. Her head felt like it was spinning as she stood.

Green lowered her head for her and she silently thanked Green as she climbed into her lion.

"What the fuck is going on?" Hunk cursed, launching the yellow lion into the sky.

Blue was still on the ground with Green. Something was wrong.  _ Very _ wrong.

"Hunk," Katie hissed as she stumbled into one of the control sticks. "Where's Allura?"

There was no response from the blue paladin. Blue was still grounded and every instinct in her body was telling her Allura wasn't there.

"Pidge we have to go!" Hunk's voice was panicked.

Not wasting a second, she launched Green into the sky. She did a scan of the area, searching for any sign of Allura. Yet, nothing came up.

The ship was Lotor's. Or Lotor's generals. Katie couldn't tell but one thing was for certain - this wasn't normal. It wasn't attacking them, or opening fire.

"Pidge!"

Maybe it was the panic in Hunk’s voice that caused her to flinch. Or maybe it was the pounding in her head that caused her to lose her train of thought as she headed in his direction. 

A loud roar came from the Blue lion as it dashed by Green and Yellow. Moments later a wormhole opened for them and they all followed suite. 

The sooner they got out of there the better. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thank you to cgf-kat for beta reading this trash. <3 Also shoutout to AlwaysinSonder for always putting up with my annoying ass and drafts. Love you guys. 
> 
> Things are starting to get spicy now ;))


	6. Sticks and Stones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's been a hot minute with updating! Recently cello practice has taken up a lot of my time so rip. But I hope you enjoy this update ? xD 
> 
> Also massive thanks to Rose for always willing to beta this mess lol

_"You know what Pidge? This is hands down the best thing you've ever invented."_

_He turned to face her, his blue eyes glistening with so much wonder and excitement. Droplets of water began to fall again and the grin on Lance's face made the countless trials and errors of creating it all worthwhile._

_It had been roughly a year and they were stuck in deep space. Out of all of them, she was fairly certain Lance was the one who was feeling the most homesick. Then one night, while helping Coran in the castle's engine core, the Altean mentioned how Lance had talked about rain and immediately an idea came to her mind._

_So she built a device that connected to the green lion’s hangar and the room’s atmosphere. It took a few failed attempts and trials, but eventually, she succeeded and had managed to make artificial rain._

_It had taken some convincing on Lance’s part, but soon enough, they were both standing in hanger, watching as the ‘rain’ fall._

_For the first time in awhile, Lance looked legitimately at peace._

_And what she wouldn’t give to see him to feel that way again._

_*_

It was by a slim chance that they had managed to escape without getting hit or shot down. Everything was a mess and Katie's mind was racing as she tried to find a way to comprehend what the fuck had just happened.

Keith was missing and Allura wasn't responding to any of Hunk and Pidge’s calls. To make matters worse, Allura had taken Lance in Blue, leaving an injured Red behind; for now, at least.

The wormhole had teleported them relatively close to the castle's location, but it was still going to take some time to reach it. Still, things could have played out a whole lot worse.

Hunk was reaching out to both Allura and Keith, while Katie worked on getting in contact with Coran again.

Both sides were radio silent.

"Pidge?" Hunk's voice startled her.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"What if Keith got injured like Lance?"

Hunk’s question left a feeling of dread in the back of her mind. The chances were probable, but they wouldn't be able to rule it out for certain until they got back to the castle.

"We don't know for certain yet Keep trying to get through to them until we get back."

That was their first priority. Getting back to the safety of the castle. Their next priority was to get Lance into a healing pod as soon as they could.

There was no telling what kind of internal injuries Lance had suffered and the longer they delayed, the worse he could become.

 

*

The scent of freshly brewed coffee woke Shiro up within seconds.

He let out a small groan as he got up from his chair. He had fallen asleep at his desk at some point during the night while reading over the Atlas' system report. And although he didn't get much sleep to begin with, that didn't mean he wouldn't crash from the lack of exhaustion from time to time.

He didn't see much of a point in trying to sleep anymore anyway.

But the crew didn't need to know that. So whenever it was curfew, he would simply retire to his quarters and live off of his coffee machine for the night.

He was fully aware that running on nothing but coffee and pure determination wasn't healthy, but there were a lot more pressing concerns in the world as opposed to how much caffeine one person should drink in a day.

That's what he liked to think at least.

After everything that they had went through in deep space, Sam had still trusted him the most out of any other crew in the Garrison with the Atlas. He was beyond lucky to still be flying; to still be, in a sense, close to his family even if they were constellations apart. But even then, the occasional pang of loneliness would hit him.

At first, he struggled transitioning from leading Voltron to the Atlas. What made it almost unbearable, however, was when Allura's castle had been completely rebuilt.

Because that meant it was time to let go from Voltron. Permanently, this time.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he threw on a spare jacket and made his way towards the ship’s bay.

Before he reached the bay doors, James caught up to him and stopped him from walking any further.

"Good morning?" Shiro asked bemused.

James was hunched over himself- desperately gasping for air.

"S..Shiro oh my..gosh." He breathed out.

It took him a minute, but he eventually had managed to get his breathing back in order.

"Need some water?" Shiro asked.

James shook his head and stood up straight again. "Commander Holt requires your immediate attention Sir. He said it was urgent."

Shiro nodded, gave him his thanks, and turned on his heel in the direction of the Holts’ living quarters.

A familiar sense of dread came to mind as he walked. From his experience, urgent matters were always bad. And the fact that Sam wanted to speak to him alone in private, only added fuel to the already burning anxiety in his mind.

Space was both equally unforgiving as it was forgiving.

And that fact alone kept him up at night.

*

Crackled static started to come through the comms after an excruciating hour of silence, alerting both Hunk and Katie immediately.

"Pidge can you clear this up?" Hunk asked.

"Already on it."

"G-gu-"

Her brows furrowed in concentration as she tried to clear the signal faster.

"C-n any-ne hea--e?"

Katie immediately let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as soon as Allura's voice became recognizable. Hunk was already in tears.

Hunk spoke first. "Allura! What's going on?"

"We nee-- stop. Lance got-- rse." The transmission wasn't clearing up.

Katie took a deep breath to calm the adrenaline. There wasn't time to panic. She couldn't afford to panic.

"Hunk! We need to rendezvous to the the nearest planet we can find. It's Lance." Her voice shook.

"Got it. Allura, follow me."

The Blue lion got behind Yellow shortly afterwards. Allura could still hear them.

Katie let out a small wince as she readjusted herself in her chair. Her entire body was still throbbing from being thrown against Green. Almost instinctively, her hand rested on top of the slight curve of her abdomen. If anything were to happen to her child, she would never be able to forgive herself. Not when she could have done more to protect her body from the blow.

But life never worked like that and it never would and she had learnt this fact years ago.

"Pidge! I found a planet!"

Hunks voice cut through the comms and it made her flinch as her screen lit up with the coordinates.

Immediately, she snapped out of her own thoughts and concentrated on the coordinates that Hunk had provided.

They would reach it within roughly 5 minutes.

Taking another deep breath, she entered the coordinates into Green's system and followed suit. "Let's go."

*

The planet was nothing but mere stone and metal, but it had been the only one within their scanners’ range.

And in this case, beggars couldn't be choosers.

Blue landed with a thud onto the ground within minutes of entering the planets atmosphere, followed closely behind by both Yellow and Green.

As soon as the lions were all secure on the ground, Hunk and Katie exited from their lions and headed straight for Blue's direction.

"Allura!?" Hunk called out as soon as he stepped foot into the empty cockpit.

"We're back here!" Allura's voice was muffled behind the metal doors that closed off the cockpit.

They rushed forward and had to immediately stop themselves from tripping over the pair as soon as the doors had opened.

Katie felt like she was going to be sick the moment she caught sight of Lance's injuries.

She was supposed to be used to this. To seeing so much blood and mutilation on a person.

But seeing it happen so many times over and over again never made it any easier.

"Holy shit..."

*

The moment Shiro had knocked on Sam's door it opened, startling him.

"Shiro! Good morning!"

Sam was sitting down on his couch with a cup of coffee and tablet in his hands, all while still lounging in his casual clothes.

He walked inside and awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck before speaking up.

"I was informed that you needed to speak to me?"

Sam raised a brow and placed his tablet down, before gesturing for Shiro to sit.

"That is correct. I do need to speak to you."

Shiro sat down with some apprehension. "Is everything alright sir?"

This was getting ridiculous. He's known Sam for how many years? The man still intimidated him.

Sam sat up straighter and placed his coffee down on the side table, before turning to face him completely.

"Oh I'm fine thanks for asking! and yourself?"

Shiro managed a nod although he was utterly confused.

"The reason why I called for this early is because some...alarming information has been brought to my attention."

This caught Shiro's focus.

"There hasn't been any records of recent paladin changes and yet both Lance and Katie haven't been heard from in nearly two weeks. Something just isn't adding up here."

Shiro frowned. "Has anyone tried to contact them or the other paladins?"

Sam nodded. "Yes. Multiple times. There is always no response."

"We're heading back to the Milky Way in a couple days. I'll make sure we stop at the castle. Until then I'll try and contact the team."

It was Sam's turn to frown. "But no one has been able to get through to them?"

"Oh trust me. I have my ways."

*

Lance couldn't handle it anymore. The pain from his leg became increasingly unbearable as Allura carefully undid the belts that were barely holding his leg together. The Altean apologized under her breath with every wince that came from him, but there was no pain-free way of removing the tiny pieces of broken metal and armor in his body.

He had to endure it.

There hadn't been much time to fight or flight when the foreign ship came into view. In the spur of the moment, Hunk shoved Lance onto Allura as they had gotten closer to their lions. They were halfway up Blue's ramp when Lance had caught sight of Pidge being thrown against Green. He had weakly struggled against her hold, but upon trying to break out of Allura's grasp he ended up making his own injuries worse.

It was touch and go. The wormhole had opened and Allura had to act fast. Lance was placed down on the ground while she had quickly got into her chair to guide Blue through the wormhole.

It only went downhill from there.

"Allura what are you doing?!" Katie kneeled down next to Lance.

The Altean stopped for a brief moment and glanced up at her. "There isn't time Pidge."

Katie frowned at this. "What do you mean there isn't time? We aren't far from-"

Lance gasped as Allura resumed her task in extractracting another piece of metal out from his leg.

Leaning down Katie took hold of Allura's hands, stopping her from pulling out anymore metal. "Allura stop it!"

"This has to be done Pidge!"

"Why are you even doing this!?" Hunk's voice boomed through the room, startling everyone.

"By the time we would have reached the castle Lance would have been in a much worse condition. On top of that, the healing pods wouldn't work properly with all the metal in his body." She managed to pry her hands from Katie's. " By doing this I'm saving time for when we get to the castle."

Lance winced again and Katie grabbed hold of his hand.

"Trust me." Allura mumbled under her breath.

It had taken everything for Katie not to snap at Allura. Of course she understood the reasoning behind Allura's actions, but it would have been a lot safer to wait until they were back on board. Regardless, the damage had been done and although it was hard to see Lance go through more pain that was beyond humane, he continued to soldier on.

Like he always did.

 


	7. Shards

_ “What about you?” Allura interjected. “What will you be doing?” _

_ He didn’t waste a second, already changing Black’s direction. “I’m going to do a quick scan of the area.” _

_ They had been set up. _

_ The moment he left the outer atmosphere, something had happened to Black. Without warning, all of Black’s systems powered down; causing them to plummet back into the planet's atmosphere. _

_ Nothing was working. Black was completely down and Keith was at a loss. He tried to connect with Black, tried talking to him. Hell, he even tried getting the lion to fire. _

_ But Black wouldn’t budge. _

_ A shadow loomed over them and before Keith could even think of an alternative, Black was already being taken up by the alien ship.The ship had been cloaked and in hiding, as if it had been waiting for them - waiting for Voltron to come and rescue their fallen comrade. _

_ All of this had to be a plan to a bigger scheme. _

_ * _

Hundreds of sentries surrounded Black in what Keith could only guess was the ship’s cargo hold, armed and ready to fire at him at any moment they deemed fit. He could feel his patience running thin with every hour that passed. Black wasn’t responding still and neither were his comms from what he could tell. 

The sound of the heavy duty doors opening alerted Keith, immediately pulling him from his own thoughts to focus on the new visitor.

“Sentries! Weapons down.”

Keith froze the moment he recognized the voice. His blood ran cold. There was no way in hell he could be back.

There was no logical explanation.

“What the fuck?” he muttered under his breath.

Once the sentries lowered their weapons, Lotor started his approach to Black, completely unphased by the beast that towered over thousands of feet above him.

_ “He’s supposed to be dead” _ , Keith thought.

“Paladin! if you wish no harm to you or your lion, I suggest you show your face immediately.”

_ Arrogant fucking bastard. _

There wasn’t a lot of options left for him to choose from. Either he stood his ground in Black and risk hurting them both. Or, he could surrender and buy himself some more time to figure out what the everloving fuck was going on.

“My patience is running quite thin paladin~”

_ He never wanted to punch someone more than he did right now. _

“Oh fuck me.” He groaned out in frustration.

As he grabbed his knife, Keith gave a reassuring pat to Black’s side and exited the lion reluctantly.

As he approached Lotor, a sense of dread overcame him. There was no way he wasn’t going to get hurt.. Everyone had learnt from their previous mistake of trusting him- and at a great cost too. And whatever was about to happen, Keith knew one thing that was for certain;

They would never ally themselves with Lotor again. 

“Halt paladin!” Lotor’s voice boomed out as he raised a hand to stop him from walking any further. 

Keith immediately stopped and held his breath, waiting for the inevitable.

“You look tense, friend. Why don’t you come and have a drink-”

Keith stood his ground. Unwavered. “You and I both know that’s bullshit. There’s no way you caused all of this just to host a fucking tea party.”

The prince looked unimpressed by his outburst. 

What had he been planning?

“You’re not wrong, but I don’t wish to fight you. Just follow me and I promise to explain-“

Keith cut him off for the second time. “No! I don’t trust you. For all I know, the moment I step out of this room you’ll imprison me and take Black!”

Lotor sighed and ran a hand through his hair, visibly getting frustrated.

“Sentries! Leave us!”

The Galran robots followed the Prince’s command unquestionably, not engaging in arms at all. Once the doors were closed, Lotor closed the distance between them.

“I don’t fault you for thinking that I’d do something to hurt you. But I can assure you Keith, no harm will come onto you.”

Keith didn’t believe a word. How could he?

He may have been away from Voltron at the time of the Prince’s alliance with the team, but that didn’t mean he was kept out of the loop entirely..

And how could he forget the sinking feeling of betrayal he had felt the moment he had discovered the hidden Altean colony?

“What do you even want from me Lotor?”

Lotor’s eyes narrowed and if looks could kill, Keith was fairly certain he would already be dead. There seemed to be no remorse in his eyes whatsoever and that alone made him weary.

“I want what's rightfully mine back.”

He quirked a brow. “And what is that exactly?”

“Oh you know, just the Galran empire.  _ My  _ Galran empire."

Keith couldn't believe what he was hearing right now. Even after spending years in the quintessence field, he was still the same arrogant bastard from the past.

Old habits really did die hard.

"Wait, let me get this straight. You captured me just to make a demand? Really?! I fly a mechanical lion for fuck’s sake! Not a fucking wish machine.”

Lotor didn't flinch at the harshness in his voice nor when he raised his hands in exasperation. In fact, it almost seemed he was bored. "How very eloquent of you paladin. Listen, it's not a huge request-"

"Not a huge request?! You’re demanding an entire alien civilization!"

Lotor sighed." -As I was saying, it’s not really a huge request,  _ theoretically _ . All i need is the aid of Voltron to

Keith scoffed. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

“And why not? We’d both benefit from it.”

“Because you used and betrayed our trust. Oh and also? You hurt my girlfriend. So no, there is no deal to be made.”

Lotor’s relaxed facade seemed to disappear at the mere mention of Allura. If Keith was guessing correctly as to what Lotor’s actual motive was, he might have just hit the nail on the head.

“Oh you didn’t hear through the quintessence field? Allura and I are together now.”

Was he intending to sound bitter? Absolutely. Did he secretly want to punch Lotor square in the jaw? No doubt about that. Was he bullshitting? Indefinitely. 

But Keith had to play his cards right, because one bad move and he would be digging deeper into his already dug out grave.

“You know I find that rather amusing paladin. Considering I was her first love-”

“She didn’t love you.”

“And how do you know that for certain?”

“Because you betrayed her trust. Because you hurt her.” He took a step closer towards him. “At the end of the day it was your power driven decisions that caused you to fuck up any remaining relationships with the only allies that really supported you.”

Lotor sucked in a breath and took a step back.

“You made your bed Lotor. Now lay in it." He spat.

Lotor didn't say another word to him as he turned around and began to leave the cargo bay, up until he reached the door.

"Very well Keith. You can suffer in here just like I did in the void."

And with that, the large metal doors closed behind Lotor, leaving Keith locked in with Black.

_ "Allura is going to kill me.” _ he groaned as he headed headed towards Black. 

*

Getting back to the Castle of Lions was complete hell.

Allura's efforts in removing as much metal shards as she could had saved them hours in the long run, because when they were finally ready to fly again, it was a race against time.

Even then, there was no real guarantee that Lance would be okay, even when they had  finally reached the castle.

“Coran! Prepare the med bay!” Hunk’s voice rang through the comms, desperation clear in his tone.

The Altean's voice crackled through the system before finally getting clearer as they approached closer.

"Paladins? Can you hear me?"

Allura was the first to answer. "Yes, Coran. Our current ETA is five minutes."

Hunk interjected."Prepare the med bay. The moment we land, we need you to be ready."

"What? Why?  Did you manage to find Lance?"

Katie finally spoke up. "Yes and he's in a really bad shape, Coran. We don’t have time to waste." She was following Blue closely from behind, eyes never leaving the lion in front of her. "We need that pod ready to go the moment Lance is off of Blue."

The Altean mumbled a quick apology under his breath before muting his comm link.

"Pidge?" Allura's voice filtered through and Katie mentally groaned.

She was agitated. On edge. It didn't help that Allura was now trying to speak to her like a mother about to scold her child. Of course, logically, she understood why Allura was trying to be gentle with her. But on the other hand she was feeling indescribably pissed off and didn’t want to hear any of it.

"I understand that you're worried about Lance but please try and be reasonable. Coran wasn't aware of the situation."

_ “I know that” _ , she thought.

And she tried to think of a simple reply of  _ “I’m sorry” _ or  _ “You’re right, my bad. _ ” But it seemed as though her mouth had different ideas.

"Allura, I don't want to hear some bullshit optimistic speech right now. Let's just focus on getting Lance back to the castle."

That both took Allura and Hunk off guard. Sure, Pidge was notorious for her curt way of talking. But not once had she ever shut Allura down like that, no matter the situation.

Something was definitely off about her. But they didn’t have time to question her. Not now, at least.

*

The moment the lions were returned to their hangars, everyone had raced to get Lance out of Blue and onto a stretcher. 

When Coran entered Red he felt himself gag at the sight of Lance’s injuries and the severity of them. Of course, he had seen his fair share of wounds and injuries from all the countless years of fighting in a war. 

But this? He was both relieved and terrified that Lance had managed to survive all that had happened to him, regardless of being in a giant mechanical lion. 

“Allura! I need you to grab the stretcher for me from outside. Hunk! I’m going to need you to help me lift and secure him onto it.” The older turned to Katie. “Pidge, I need you to go into the medbay to prepare cloth and lukewarm water. We’ll need to clean out the wounds before putting him in the pod.” 

Without any hesitation, everyone rushed to do their given tasks, not willing to waste a second as they helped Lance onto the stretcher. Coran cursed internally as he got a proper look at the paladin’s broken body.

“Lance my boy hold on just a tick longer alright? You have to stay with us now.” 

Lance was becoming breathless and that had sent alarm bells ringing for all of them. 

“K..Katie..?” Lance mumbled under his breath..

“You’ll see her real soon.” Coran reassured.

“...am..I going to..” he was starting to space out again. 

“Stay with me now boy! We’ll be there in a few ticks!.”

Ocean blue eyes directly looked up at Coran, and just for a moment Coran thought he was going to say something witty or make a joke. Anything to elevate the tension in the room. But what Lance had said was something he wasn’t prepared to hear. Not by a long shot. 

“Am I going to die?” 

“Just hold on a little bit longer okay?”

As the metal doors to the medbay opened for them. Katie could feel her heartbeat thrum against her ribcage as she approached everyone, already grabbing a pair of scissors to cut off the remaining parts of the bodysuit. While she was doing that, both Hunk and Allura worked on removing the last parts of the armor. 

It took everything in her not to panic as she peeled away the black material from Lance’s chest, only to find various marks of bruises and swelling from all over. 

“His ribs are broken.”

The team nodded in acknowledgement at what she said as they continued their work.

“Coran I removed as much as I could from his wounds, but I’m afraid I still may have missed some pieces.” Allura spoke when she had noticed the other altean begin to clean the wounds. 

He nodded.“That’s alright. We can work with that.”

What had taken a mere 10 minutes, if that, had felt like an excruciating hour as they had finally managed to get Lance into the pod. Both Hunk and Coran had to place it on the ground so Lance was technically lying down. Because there was no way in hell he would be able to to keep himself standing, regardless if there was altean magic involved or not. 

Once the pod had finally closed and Lance’s features seemed to soften out, Katie let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. 

Lance wasn’t out of the woods yet but he was becoming stable. And that alone was enough to calm down some of the anxieties that clawed at her.

All they could do now was wait it out.

*  


“I thought you might still be in here.” Hunk spoke as he sat down next to her.

Lance had been the pod for nearly twelve hours now and Katie had flat out refused to leave his side. That didn’t mean the others hadn’t snuck off the take a shower, and grab something to eat from time to time

Hunk handed her a bowl of leftovers from an earlier dinner, which she had accepted graciously. 

“You should try and get some rest Pidge.”

She paused lifting her spoon and glanced at him. “I will later. I’m not tired right now.”

Hunk sighed, she was still stubborn as ever, even years later. “I’ll stay with him while you get cleaned up. If anything happens while you’re gone, you’ll be the first to know.” 

She contemplated what he had said for a brief moment before putting the bowl of food down, no longer interested in it. Instead, she turned to fully face him.

“Hunk..I’m scared about Lance.” 

His mouth opened ajar but before he could speak, she was already continuing. 

“What if he doesn't get over this? What if Lance closes himself off from everyone again? What if-”

Hunk cut her off. “-What if he wakes up to find his family supporting him? What if he gets through this like he has in the past? What if everything will work themselves out? It’s not going to be easy for him, but he’ll pull through.”

She let out a shaky sigh as Hunk squeezed her knee in an attempt of reassurance. He was right. Lance was resilient. He always had been and she doubted that that’d change now. 

But that still didn’t mean she wasn’t anxious for him. Especially since she was-

“Hunk..I need to tell you something.”

He turned to fully face her now. There was no way to avoid this now.

“Before we left on our mission I had decided to pull a little science experiment. It wasn’t complex or anything but it was also extremely viable. “

“Pidge. Calm down. You’re talking really fast again.”

She gulped and muttered a quick apology before continuing. “I guess what I’m trying to to say is, Hunk I’m pre-” she faltered. What if it had just been a fluke? A deflect. She couldn't tell him.”-Pretty sure I accidentally left my computer on before we left. I'll be right back.”

And before Hunk had a chance to say anything, she was already out the door within the blink of an eye. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> season 8 hurt. alot. I'm sorry.


	8. Limbo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay what is poppin y'all ? I know it has been literal months since updating this but uh..long story short I couldn't touch this fic or write plance in general for a few months since December. BUT WE'RE BACK NOW.
> 
> also pls be kind this is unbeta'd and probably a mess :')

Everyone had taken turns to stay in the medbay, in case of the off chance Lance woke up without anyone there. But the thing was, he wasn’t waking up and it was becoming more frustrating with each passing day.

To top it all of, Katie was beginning to notice the changes in her body day by day. First, it was the nausea that greeted her every time she awoke or if she so happened to  _ look  _ at a plate of food goo. Then her chest began to feel tender and she was becoming more tired by the day.

The worst part about all of this, however, was the fact that nobody knew about it, but she was determined to keep it that way until Lance woke up, because so help her she didn't want the team to know before him.

Hunk was starting to get suspicious of her though. The suspicious glances he’d throw her way at dinner time was painfully obvious. It was worse enough that she was hiding the pregnancy in the first place but if her best friend happened to confront her about it, she wasn't so sure she could lie to him. again. 

She couldn’t do that to him. Not Hunk.

She rested a hand gently on her abdomen and looked down at the tiny bump that was starting to take shape. She was laying against the side of Lance's pod, lazily trying to distract herself in an attempt to keep her from wondering to the dark places that seemed to linger in her mind more and more as the days dragged on.

That was the funny thing about time. It can go by in a blink of an eye, or it could equally feel non-existent within a matter of seconds.

"Hey sweetheart.." she mumbled under her breath."We have gotta be strong for your daddy okay?"

The ship jolted suddenly, causing her to tumble back a bit. A wave of nausea hit her equally as fast and it took everything in her to not go running to the nearest bathroom.

"Fucking hell-"

"Pidge!" Hunk's voice came over the comms, frantic and breathless. "Pidge you need to get up here!"

She didn't question it, there was no reason to. She took one last look at Lance before running towards the observation deck. Maybe they had finally gotten the communicators to work? or maybe they were no longer stuck in a limbo on the castle and they could finally go home?.

The door to the observation deck opened and Katie felt her heart catch in her throat when she caught sight of her father and Shiro standing there, within arms reach.

"Dad!" She called out and Sam turned around at the sound of his daughter's voice, enveloping her in a hug.

She clung onto him for a brief moment, before pulling away to hug Shiro as well.

"What are you guys doing here?" She questioned.

Shiro gave a small chuckle as he went around hugging the other paladins in greeting while Sam gave his daughter another hug.

"Your mother contacted us," Shiro explained. "She said you hadn't been in touch with her for over a week and it was the same thing with the garrison. It was like you two vanished."

Pidge bit her lip, guilt heavy on her shoulders. "I know...and I'm sorry dad."

Sam ruffled her hair a bit before turning to face everyone else in the room. "So what's the situation here?"

Allura had filled the both of them in as Katie led them to the medbay to see Lance for themselves. Before they reached the door Katie stopped and turned to them, honey eyes seeping caution.

"Before we go in I need to warn you both," she said, pointing at her father and Shiro. "Lance is really roughed up. So just..prepare yourself I guess?"

With that, she turned around and led them to the room.

Lance was laying down the pod, just like Shiro had been years ago. He looked so peaceful that it was almost concerning. Wounds and scars covered his entire body with a dusted red that stood out amongst the old ones. But what really made their stomachs churn was the gaping wound on his thigh.

"Holy shit." Shiro whispered.

The sight of him was grueling, to say the least. Sam had seemed to visibly pale at the mere sight of him.

“He’s been in here for over a week now..: Hunk whispered.

“He needs to go back home,” Shiro stated. “With the current shape of the castle, it doesn't surprise me that the pod isn’t functioning to its full ability.”

“Then let's do it.” Sam affirmed, a confident hand resting on top of the pod. “Let’s bring him home.”

*

“Mum, you’re doing your pacing thing again.”

Colleen stopped in her tracks to glare up at her smug sitting son. He had perched himself at the top of the stairs for a while now, waiting, just like Colleen was.

They had received word from Sam that the ATLAS had finally entered the milky ways orbit and were now heading towards the castle. Which left the pair of them waiting.

That's the funny thing about earth and space-time. It's always changing, shifting, moving slowly and yet so quickly. But hours are still hours and Colleen was about to reach out to Sam yet again when the communicator went off.

They both sprung to it, answering it within seconds.

"Colleen?" Sam's voice was staggered as if he had just been running for miles on end.

"Sam! Oh thank God, I was starting to worry." She approached the hologram, looking worn for wear. "Did you manage to get in contact with the paladins? Do you know if Katie is with them?"

There was a moment of silence as Sam glanced down grimly before tired eyes met her own.

"We did. And it's not good. "

"Not good?!" Matt's voice shot through the wall of tension that was slowly starting to build between the two. "Dad, elaborate."

"I-"

A door opened and Shiro walked in, carrying what looked like to be a box of supplies with him.

"Sam?" Colleen called.

"We're going to tow the castle back to us. It's been really roughed up."

"And everyone? are they okay? What about Katie and Lance?"

At the mention of their names, Sam tensed up. "Most of them are fine, yes. but. Lance is really rough to wear right now."

"Sam what do you mean by that?!" Colleen questioned

“He..he got pretty roughed up. He's in the healing pod-”

“The healing pod?! “ Colleen exclaimed.

He gave a grim nod. “Yeah. We're preparing to board him onto the atlas then we’re en-routing to the garrison.”

Colleen nodded, understanding the type of situation all too well. “Is Katie around?”

Sam shook his head, and her shoulders dropped at that.

"She's preparing supplies in Green right now. I can forward you to her if you'd like?"

She thought about it for a brief moment, before shaking her head. On one hand she wanted nothing more than to speak to her daughter but on the other hand she knew that Katie would have enough going on in her mind as is.

It was enough for now knowing that Katie was alive and safe. She could handle the silence from her for a little while longer.

"Anyway..how are you doing love?" Sam questioned.

She placed her coffee cup down and gave him a small, yet tired smile. “I’m doing better now that I know where our daughter is and that she’s safe.” 

Sam nodded “You and me both. But uh..”

“You have to go.” She finished the sentence for him.

He nodded, a grim expression shadowing his features as they said their farewells and ‘I love you's.’ Soon they’d be reunited again, and that was enough to keep going for now. 

*

After Shiro and Sam had seen the extent of the castles damage and Lance's injuries, they called everyone back to the observation deck for an emergency meeting.

Shiro watched everyone walk in, subconsciously doing a headcount. The last person to enter was Hunk and that's when it hit him.

Keith wasn't there.

He had been caught up with Lance, and going over bullshit details of the state of the castle that it didn't occur to him that he hadn't seen him at all. 

“Where's Keith?” he asked as his eyes continued to search the room, expecting Keith to just emerge from somewhere.

The tone of the room shifted as everyone turned to face him.

Hunk didn't meet his eyes, nor did Pidge. Even Coran was shifting uncomfortably on his feet and that sent alarm bells blaring his mind.

“Guys? What happened? “ he pressed.

A delicate hand found itself on his shoulder as Allura gave it a tiny squeeze. “Let's talk outside.”

Shiro gave a brief nod and began to follow her out, before turning back around to give Sam the all clear for discussing their options with the team.

The moment they had stepped out of the room Shiro’s facade broke as he truly let his mind wander through all of his thoughts. All of the ‘what if’s”.

Allura led him down a hallway before stopping in front of a door, unlocking it momentarily and ushered him inside.

He spoke before Allura, eye focusing on her as they both sat down.

“Where is he?”

She shook her head. “We don’t know.”

“Do you know what happened?” He prompted.

Allura fidgeted with her fingers for a few seconds before replying. “it happened moments after the recovery mission.”

Shiro held his breath as he waited for her to continue, the anticipation thick between them.

"Keith told us to go after Lance while he searched around the parameter for any signs of trouble or a trap. When we got out of Red, Lotors ship manifests from nowhere"

His blood went cold. Lotor was supposed to be dead. They had all made sure of it, so there was no way in hell he was-

"I don't know what happened or how it happened but he was nowhere to be found and his comms were down. And.." she hesitated for a brief moment. "As much as I hate to admit it he wasn't our priority till now. We were all focused on recovering Lance and stabilizing him. I'm sorry Shiro."

He held in a breath, collecting his thoughts and calming his mind. They had been in the right. Keith was more than capable of protecting himself, but nevertheless, it was still a bit of a worry.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

Allura ran a hand through her hair, visibly frustrated at the situation and herself and pulled out a chair to sit down.

"Well all of us can't go back with Lance. Obviously it's only going to be Pidge, Lance, and Sam who will go back but even so, I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about their return."

He gave a grim nod. "Dividing up the team is never good, quite frankly I never approved of the garrisons way."

"Exactly my thoughts," Allura said. "Regardless, we can't dwell on it now. We need to focus on and create a plan. One that everyone on board can agree upon."

"Let's go then." He remarked, standing up from the chair and opening the door.

They needed to think out their options, even if they didn't want to they had to.

*

Being inside Black for as long as he had been was starting to cause Keith to go a little stir crazy. Sure, in the past he traveled for months on end in Black but that was different. For one thing, back then he wasn't stuck in one place and he had his friends to talk with.

Now he had neither of those, save for the small talk Black would occanously make with him in the back of his consciousness. Other than that, however, it was just plain silence. Even Kosmo was quiet.

_ Kosmo _ .

Frantically he glanced around the cockpit, looking for the wolf frantically and equally desperate. Maybe Kosmo could get him out of this mess theoretically. It was sure as hell was worth a shot opposed to just waiting for an escape plan to manifest.

"Kosmo?" he whispered.

The silence continued to substitute the usual buzzing lion.

"Kosmo? here boy!" He called a little louder, and before he even had a chance to react, he felt a force barrel into him before coming visible, his tongue licking his face.

"Hey bud." he chuckled. "I missed you too."

He gave a brief pat on the dogs head before getting up, off the floor and began his search for some parchment and a pen. Surely Black would have some, somewhere. He always stored some away in case of something like this happening. 

"Listen boy," He called out to Kosmo as he rummaged through the draws. "I'm in a bit of a tight situation right now. And I can't leave with you either because if I do, who knows what Lotor would do with Black? Or the galaxy for that matter?"

The space pup tilted it's head as Keith rambled on before nuzzling him in the leg.

"It's not forever 'Mo" he sighed, pulling out a scrap piece of paper and pen. "I'll come back in full swing, just you wait." He ruffled the wolfs fur before handing Kosmo the note. “You’ll find them.” 

Kosmo gave him a small whine, almost as if he was telling him the same thing, before teleporting away from the lion. Black purred in the back of his mind, subconsciously comforting his inner worries.

If there was one thing that had really stuck with him through his mamora days, it’d be endless lectures he’d received from multiple senior members of the order, all of them telling him the same thing; Don’t act on instinct or emotion alone. Assess the situation around you, notice the surroundings and atmosphere. Then and only then, can you plan your attack. 

So he did what he knew best and waited for an opportunity to arise for him to escape his metal confinement. 

*

“Yo Pidge, you in here?” 

Hunk called out to her as he began to knock on her bedroom door. When there was no response he considered walking away, but he had a sinking suspicion about something and it wasn’t fading. 

Quickly, he checked that no one was nearby the hallway before stepping foot into her quarters. Was she going to be mad at him for stepping into her personal space without her knowing? Most likely. Was it worth the risk of baking her hundreds of apology peanut butter cookies? Most indefinitely. 

And technically, in his defense, if she were to question his presence, he could just bullshit and say that he was checking to make sure she hadn’t fallen asleep at her desk again. It was a perfect excuse.

Pidge’s quarters were equally as messy as they had been all those years back. Quickly he glanced around the room before his attention focused on the desk. 

He shouldn’t be doing this, he really shouldn’t, but at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to back out now. 

With a few small steps he was standing his front of her desk and within a split second his eyes dropped to the very object he was looking for. Picking up the plastic tube, he turned it over and felt his heart plummet to his stomach. 

This was wrong. He shouldn't have overstepped his bounds. 

Just as he went to put the test town however, he froze when he heard the bedroom door slide open. There was no way in hell this could be happening. 

“Hunk?” Pidge’s steps faltered the minute her eyes landed on the object he was holding. 

There was no amount of bullshitting that could get him out of this now. He had made his bed, now he had to lie in it. 

  
  



End file.
